Wide-field radar-based gesture recognition

ABSTRACT

This document describes techniques using, and devices embodying, wide-field radar-based gesture recognition. These techniques and devices can enable a great breadth of gestures and uses for those gestures, such as gestures to use, control, and interact with computing and non-computing devices, from software applications to refrigerators.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/142,619 filed Apr. 29, 2016, which, in turn,claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.62/155,357 filed Apr. 30, 2015, the disclosure of which is incorporatedby reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Small-screen computing devices continue to proliferate, such assmartphones and computing bracelets, rings, and watches. Like manycomputing devices, these small-screen devices often use virtualkeyboards to interact with users. On these small screens, however, manypeople find interacting through virtual keyboards to be difficult, asthey often result in slow and inaccurate inputs. This frustrates usersand limits the applicability of small-screen computing devices. Thisproblem has been addressed in part through screen-based gesturerecognition techniques. These screen-based gestures, however, stillstruggle from substantial usability issues due to the size of thesescreens.

To address this problem, optical finger- and hand-tracking techniqueshave been developed, which enable gesture tracking not made on thescreen. These optical techniques, however, have been large, costly, orinaccurate thereby limiting their usefulness in addressing usabilityissues with small-screen computing devices.

One other manner has recently been developed where gestures are trackedusing radar. Current radar techniques, however, often require a largeantenna array and suffer from numerous practical difficulties. Theselarge antenna arrays use thin-beam scanning techniques to locate a largenumber of points in space, including points of a human action (e.g.,fingers, arm, or hand). These techniques track these points of a humanaction and the other points in space and then determine which points areassociated with the human action and which are not. With these actionpoints determined, the techniques track their movement and, based onthese movements of the points of the action, reconstruct the actionthroughout the movement. With this reconstructed movement, thetechniques then determine a gesture associated with those movements.This permits some rudimentary gesture recognition but is limited by thelarge antenna array and the computational difficulties and resourcerequirements inherent in using thin-beam scanning techniques.

SUMMARY

This document describes techniques and devices for wide-fieldradar-based gesture recognition. These techniques and devices canaccurately recognize gestures that are made in three dimensions, such asnon-screen or “in-the-air” gestures. These in-the-air gestures can bemade from varying distances, such as from a person sitting on a couch tocontrol a television, a person standing in a kitchen to control an ovenor refrigerator, or centimeters from a computing watch's small-screendisplay.

This summary is provided to introduce simplified concepts concerningwide-field radar-based gesture recognition, which is further describedbelow in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended toidentify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is itintended for use in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of techniques and devices for wide-field radar-based gesturerecognition are described with reference to the following drawings. Thesame numbers are used throughout the drawings to reference like featuresand components:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment in which wide-fieldradar-based gesture recognition can be implemented.

FIG. 2 illustrates the wide-field radar-based gesture-recognition systemand computing device of FIG. 1 in detail.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example method for determining signal elements fora gesture.

FIG. 4 illustrates gestures made and signal elements determined based onthose gestures.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example method enabling wide-field radar-basedgesture recognition using the signal elements determined at FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 illustrates example type-specific and type-independent gesturemanagers, including example type-specific hardware abstraction modules.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of gestures made and signal elementsdetermined using type-specific hardware abstraction modules.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example computing system embodying, or in whichtechniques may be implemented that enable use of, wide-field radar-basedgesture recognition.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

This document describes techniques and devices enabling wide-fieldradar-based gesture recognition. These techniques and devices enable agreat breadth of gestures and uses for those gestures, such as gesturesto use, control, and interact with various devices, from smartphones torefrigerators. The techniques and devices are capable of providing awide radar field that can sense gestures using relatively small radarsystems, even those that can be included within small devices.Furthermore, these techniques need not track and reconstruct points of ahuman action to determine gestures, which has various advantagesdescribed below.

This document now turns to an example environment, after which examplewide-field radar-based gesture-recognition systems and radar fields,example methods, example techniques and devices for development ofhardware abstraction modules, and an example computing system aredescribed.

Example Environment

FIG. 1 is an illustration of example environment 100 in which techniquesusing, and an apparatus including, a wide-field radar-basedgesture-recognition system 102 may be embodied. Environment 100 includestwo example devices and techniques for using wide-field radar-basedgesture-recognition system 102, in the first, wide-field radar-basedgesture-recognition system 102-1 provides a radar field of intermediatesize to interact with one of computing devices 104, desktop computer104-1, and in the second, wide-field radar-based gesture-recognitionsystem 102-2 provides a radar field of small size to interact withcomputing watch 104-2.

Desktop computer 104-1 includes, or is associated with, wide-fieldradar-based gesture-recognition system 102-1. These devices worktogether to improve user interaction with desktop computer 104-1.Assume, for example, that desktop computer 104-1 includes a touch screen108 through which display and user interaction can be performed. Thistouch screen 108 can present some challenges to users, such as needing aperson to sit in a particular orientation, such as upright and forward,to be able to touch the screen. Further, the size for selecting controlsthrough touch screen 108 can make interaction difficult andtime-consuming for some users. Consider, however, wide-field radar-basedgesture-recognition system 102-1, which provides radar field 106-1enabling a user's hands to interact with desktop computer 104-1, such aswith small or large, simple or complex gestures, including those withone or two hands, and in three dimensions. As is readily apparent, alarge volume through which a user may make selections can besubstantially easier and provide a better experience over a flatsurface, such as that of touch screen 108.

Similarly, consider wide-field radar-based gesture-recognition system102-2, which provides radar field 106-2, which enables a user tointeract with computing watch 104-2 from a near distance, enablingfinger, hand, and arm gestures. By so doing, user selections can be madesimpler and easier than a small screen of a small computing device, suchas that of computing watch 104-2.

Wide-field radar-based gesture-recognition systems 102 can interact withapplications or an operating system of computing devices 104, orremotely through a communication network by transmitting inputresponsive to recognizing gestures. Gestures can be mapped to variousapplications and devices, thereby enabling control of many devices andapplications. Many complex and unique gestures can be recognized bywide-field radar-based gesture-recognition systems 102, therebypermitting precise and/or single-gesture control, even for multipleapplications. Wide-field radar-based gesture-recognition systems 102,whether integrated with a computing device, having computingcapabilities, or having few computing abilities, can each be used tointeract with various devices and applications.

In more detail, consider FIG. 2, which illustrates wide-fieldradar-based gesture-recognition system 102 as part of one of computingdevice 104. Computing device 104 is illustrated with variousnon-limiting example devices, the noted desktop computer 104-1,computing watch 104-2, as well as smartphone 104-3, tablet 104-4,computing ring 104-5, computing spectacles 104-6, and microwave 104-7,though other devices may also be used, such as home automation andcontrol systems, entertainment systems, audio systems, other homeappliances, security systems, netbooks, and e-readers. Note thatcomputing device 104 can be wearable, non-wearable but mobile, orrelatively immobile (e.g., desktops and appliances).

Note also that wide-field radar-based gesture-recognition system 102 canbe used with, or embedded within, many different computing devices orperipherals, such as in walls of a home to control home appliances andsystems (e.g., automation control panel), in automobiles to controlinternal functions (e.g., volume, cruise control, or even driving of thecar), or as an attachment to a laptop computer to control computingapplications on the laptop.

Further, radar fields 106 can be invisible and penetrate some materials,such as textiles, thereby further expanding how the wide-fieldradar-based gesture-recognition system 102 can be used and embodied.While examples shown herein generally show one wide-field radar-basedgesture-recognition system 102 per device, multiples can be used,thereby increasing a number and complexity of gestures, as well asaccuracy and robust recognition.

Computing device 104 includes one or more computer processors 202 andcomputer-readable media 204, which includes memory media and storagemedia. Applications and/or an operating system (not shown) embodied ascomputer-readable instructions on computer-readable media 204 can beexecuted by processors 202 to provide some of the functionalitiesdescribed herein. Computer-readable media 204 also includes gesturemanager 206 (described below).

Computing device 104 may also include network interfaces 208 forcommunicating data over wired, wireless, or optical networks and display210. By way of example and not limitation, network interface 208 maycommunicate data over a local-area-network (LAN), a wirelesslocal-area-network (WLAN), a personal-area-network (PAN), awide-area-network (WAN), an intranet, the Internet, a peer-to-peernetwork, point-to-point network, a mesh network, and the like.

Wide-field radar-based gesture-recognition system 102, as noted above,is configured to sense gestures. To enable this, wide-field radar-basedgesture-recognition system 102 includes a radar-emitting element 212 andan antenna element 214.

Generally, radar-emitting element 212 is configured to providewide-field radar in contrast to narrow-beam-scanning radar fields. Inone embodiment, a large contiguous field is used, rather than abeam-scanning field. The reflections in that field can then be receivedby one or multiple antennas. This reflection signal includes manysignals and signal elements, and therefore may be referred to as areflection signal or a set of reflection signals, but in both casesmultiple signal elements are included. In one case, a large radar fieldand large-field reflections are received at one receiver but the signalreceived is processed by digitally breaking up the received reflections.The broken-up signals are then analyzed separately. This can be referredto as beam stealing though no beams are actually formed in the largeradar field. Other digital processing may be used, such as phase arraysin which fields of different phases are admitted, each for analysis ofthe reflection signals.

In another embodiment multiple fields are used but from differentdirections or having other differences, such as different frequencies orphases, and which can be received by one or multiple dedicated receivers(e.g., antenna elements 214).

More specifically, these fields include numerous kinds of radar fields,such as those from continuous wave and pulsed radar systems, and mayexclude phased antenna arrays. Pulsed radar systems are often of shortertransmit time and higher peak power, and include both impulse andchirped radar systems. Pulsed radar systems have a range based on timeof flight and a velocity based on frequency shift. Chirped radar systemshave a range based on time of flight (pulse compressed) and a velocitybased on frequency shift.

Continuous wave radar systems are often of relatively longer transmittime and lower peak power. These continuous wave radar systems includesingle tone, linear frequency modulated (FM), and stepped FM types.Single tone radar systems have a very limited range based on the phaseand a velocity based on frequency shift. Linear FM radar systems have arange based on frequency shift at a velocity also based on frequencyshift. Stepped FM radar systems have a range based on phase or time offlight and a velocity based on frequency shift. While these five typesof radar systems are noted herein, others may also be used, such assinusoidal modulation scheme radar systems.

Radar fields provided by these types of radar systems vary from a smallsize, such as zero or one or so millimeters to 1.5 meters, or anintermediate size, such as about one to about 30 meters. In theintermediate size, antenna element 214 is configured to receive andprocess reflections of the radar field to provide large-body gesturesbased on reflections from human tissue caused by body, arm, or legmovements, though smaller and more-precise gestures can be sensed aswell. Example intermediate-sized radar fields include those in which auser makes gestures to control a television from a couch, change a songor volume from a stereo across a room, turn off an oven or oven timer (anear field would also be useful), turn lights on or off in a room, andso forth.

Radar-emitting element 212 can instead be configured to provide a wideradar field from little if any distance from a computing device or itsdisplay, including radar fields that are a full contiguous field incontrast to beam-scanning radar field. Examples are illustrated in FIG.1 with radar fields 106.

Radar-emitting element 212 can be configured to provide the wide-fieldradars of the various types set forth above. Antenna element 214 isconfigured to receive reflections of, or sense interactions in, theradar field. In some cases, reflections include those from human tissuethat is within the radar field, such as a hand or arm movement. Antennaelement 214 can include one or many antennas or sensors, such as anarray of radiation sensors, the number in the array based on a desiredresolution and whether the field is a surface or volume.

The field provided by radar-emitting element 212 can be athree-dimensional (3D) volume (e.g., hemisphere, cube, volumetric fan,cone, or cylinder) to sense in-the-air gestures, though a surface field(e.g., projecting on a surface of a person) can instead be used. Antennaelement 214 is configured, in some cases, to receive reflections frominteractions in the radar field of two or more targets (e.g., fingers,arms, or persons) and provide a composite signal.

Example radar fields 106 are illustrated in FIG. 1 in which a user mayperform complex or simple gestures with his or her arm, body, finger,fingers, hand, or hands (or a device like a stylus) that interrupts theradar field. Example gestures include the many gestures usable withcurrent touch-sensitive displays, such as swipes, two-finger pinch,spread, rotate, tap, and so forth. Other gestures are enabled that arecomplex, or simple but three-dimensional, examples include the manysign-language gestures, e.g., those of American Sign Language (ASL) andother sign languages worldwide. A few examples of these are: anup-and-down fist, which in ASL means “Yes”; an open index and middlefinger moving to connect to an open thumb, which means “No”; a flat handmoving up a step, which means “Advance”; a flat and angled hand movingup and down; which means “Afternoon”; clenched fingers and open thumbmoving to open fingers and an open thumb, which means “taxicab”; anindex finger moving up in a roughly vertical direction, which means“up”; and so forth. These are but a few of many gestures that can besensed as well as be mapped to particular devices or applications, suchas the advance gesture to skip to another song on a web-based radioapplication, a next song on a compact disk playing on a stereo, or anext page or image in a file or album on a computer display or digitalpicture frame.

Returning to FIG. 2, wide-field radar-based gesture-recognition system102 also includes a transmitting device configured to transmit areflection signal to a remote device, though this need not be used whenwide-field radar-based gesture-recognition system 102 is integrated withcomputing device 104. When included, the reflection signal can beprovided in a format usable by a remote computing device sufficient forthe remote computing device to determine the gesture in those caseswhere the gesture is not determined by wide-field radar-basedgesture-recognition system 102 or computing device 104.

In more detail, radar-emitting element 212 can be configured to emitmicrowave radiation in a 1 GHz to 300 GHz range, a 3 GHz to 100 GHzrange, and narrower bands, such as 57 GHz to 63 GHz, to provide theradar field. This range affects antenna element 214's ability to receiveinteractions, such as to follow locations of two or more targets to aresolution of about two to about 25 millimeters. Radar-emitting element212 can be configured, along with other entities of wide-fieldradar-based gesture-recognition system 102, to have a relatively fastupdate rate, which can aid in resolution of the interactions.

By selecting particular frequencies, wide-field radar-basedgesture-recognition system 102 can operate to substantially penetrateclothing while not substantially penetrating human tissue. Thus, aperson wearing gloves or a long sleeve shirt that could interfere withsensing gestures with some conventional techniques, can still be sensedwith wide-field radar-based gesture-recognition system 102.

Wide-field radar-based gesture-recognition system 102 may also includeone or more system processors 218 and system media 220 (e.g., one ormore computer-readable storage media). System media 220 includes systemmanager 222 and hardware abstraction module 224. System manager 222 canperform various operations, including determining a gesture based on thereflection signal, mapping the determined gesture to a pre-configuredcontrol gesture associated with a control input for an applicationassociated with touch screen 108, and causing transceiver 216 totransmit the control input to the remote device effective to enablecontrol of the application (if remote). This is but one of the ways inwhich the above-mentioned control through wide-field radar-basedgesture-recognition system 102 can be enabled. Operations of systemmanager 222 are provided in greater detail as part of methods 300 and500 below. Hardware abstraction module 224 is part of an alternativeembodiment described in FIGS. 6 and 7 below.

These and other capabilities and configurations, as well as ways inwhich entities of FIGS. 1 and 2 act and interact, are set forth ingreater detail below. These entities may be further divided, combined,and so on. The environment 100 of FIG. 1 and the detailed illustrationsof FIG. 2 illustrate some of many possible environments and devicescapable of employing the described techniques.

Example Methods

FIGS. 3 and 5 depict methods enabling wide-field radar-based gesturerecognition. Method 300 determines signal elements that can be used toenable determination of a gesture from a later-received reflectionsignal having the signal elements. Method 500 determines a gesture fromreflection signals based on signal elements associated with the gesture.These methods are shown as sets of blocks that specify operationsperformed but are not necessarily limited to the order or combinationsshown for performing the operations by the respective blocks. Inportions of the following discussion reference may be made toenvironment 100 of FIG. 1 and as detailed in FIG. 2, reference to whichis made for example only. The techniques are not limited to performanceby one entity or multiple entities operating on one device.

In more detail, method 300 builds, through many iterations, a databaseof signal elements associated with particular gestures. In effect,method 300 learns from reflected signals that a particular gesture isbeing performed. Method 300 may do so for each of the various differenttypes of radar systems, though in an alternative embodiment set forthfollowing methods 300 and 500, hardware abstraction layers for each ofthose radar systems can be developed to permit a hardware-independentgesture manager.

At 302 a radar field is provided. As shown in FIG. 2, system manager 222may cause radar-emitting element 212 of wide-field radar-basedgesture-recognition system 102 to provide (e.g., project or emit) one ofthe described radar fields noted above.

At 304, a first set of reflection signals caused by a first interactionof a first human action performing a gesture within the radar field isreceived. This set of reflection signals represents a first time periodduring which the first human action interacts with the radar field. Byway of a first example, assume that a test person performs a particulargesture in the radar field. This test person can continue to performthis particular gesture or another person can perform the particulargesture, e.g. at different angles, with different hand or finger sizes,in different positions, in different orientations, and with differentclothes, background, and other aspects that may affect the reflectedsignal. Thus, the reflection signals include signal elements other thanthose caused by the gesture being performed. This can intentionally bepart of the learning process by providing, in some cases, one object andmotion that is relatively consistent, with other objects and motionsthat are inconsistent. This may aid in the learning process describedbelow.

At 306, a second set of reflection signals caused by a secondinteraction of a second human action performing the gesture within theradar field is received. This second set of reflection signalsrepresents a second time period during which the first or second humanaction interacts with a radar field. Continuing the ongoing example,method 300 receives a second set of reflection signals, though as shownin the dashed arrow in FIG. 3, the techniques may perform operationswith many different persons, iterations of the same gesture, and soforth to better understand the signal elements associated with gesturesbeing made.

At 308, the first and second sets of reflection signals are analyzed todetermine a signal element common to both sets of the reflectionsignals. In more detail, analyzing the multiple reflection signalsdetermines the signal element common to both of the reflection signals.This can be performed by breaking the reflection signals into manysignal elements and determining which of the signal elements correspondto both the first interaction and the second interaction for the samegesture. This is somewhat simplified, as iterations of many gesturesbeing performed may be needed to accurately determine the signalelements that correspond to the gesture, such as 50, 100, or evenhundreds of iterations.

As part of this, numerous signal elements are likely to be associatedwith objects and movements, or even noise, having nothing to do with thegesture itself. These numerous signal elements, to some extent, can beignored if no correlation with the gesture is found.

In some cases, this analysis is not based on tracking points or elementsof a human action, such as determining particular points and orientationof those points, reconstructing the action, then determining how thebody part moves or changes in order to determine the gesture beingperformed.

At 310, the signal element is associated with the gesture effective toenable a later received reflection signal caused by another interactionby a different (or same) human action to be associated with the gesture.At 312, these determined signal elements are stored in association withthe gesture performed.

By way of one illustration, consider FIG. 4, which shows three differentgestures being performed, one at a time with multiple iterations, todetermine the signal elements associated with the gesture. The gesturesillustrated include a hand wave gesture 402, a fist shake gesture 404(an American Sign Language (ASL) gesture for “Yes”), and a pinch fingergesture 406.

In this first case, hand wave gesture 402 is performed multiple times,with multiple reflection signals 408 being received by antenna element214. Antenna element 214 passes the reflection signals to gesturemanager 206, which performs the analysis described for operation 308. Inthe second case, fist shake gesture 404 is performed multiple times,with multiple reflection signals 410 being received by antenna element214. Antenna element 214 then passes the reflection signals to gesturemanager 206, which determines signal elements for fist shake gesture404. Likewise, in the third case, pinch finger gesture 406 is performedmultiple times within the radar field, at which point reflection signalsare received by antenna element 214, which passes these to gesturemanager 206. Gesture manager 206 then determines signal elements for thepinch finger gesture 406. Each of these recorded signal elements canlater be used to determine gestures performed in real-life rather thanas part of determining gestures themselves, though a feedback loopenabling continued improvement of the signal elements is alsocontemplated based on accuracies or inaccuracies of gesture recognitionperformed by users in their normal course of life.

Optionally, at 314, signal elements determined for the gesture can berefined based on other signal elements associated with other gestures.Consider, for example, a case where method 300 is performed for each ofthe three gestures shown in FIG. 4, resulting in three differentdetermined signal elements. These different signal elements can be usedto refine each other. Assume that one set of signal elements aredetermined for fist shake gesture 404 and a second set of signalelements are determined for pinch finger gesture 406. At 314, the firstset and the second set can be analyzed and compared, and, based on this,the weight of various signal elements can be decreased or increased.Thus, if similar, the signal elements may be reduced in weight orremoved. If dissimilar, increased. If unique, also increased. Further,the signal elements determined for the third gesture—hand wave gesture402, can also be used to refine either or both the signal elements forthe other gestures.

Method 500 determines a gesture from reflection signals based on signalelements associated with the gesture. Thus, the single elementsdetermined at method 300 are used to determine gestures at method 500.

At 502, a radar field is provided, such as the wide radar fields notedabove. By way of example, consider FIG. 2 in which wide-fieldradar-based gesture recognition system 102 includes radar emittingelement 212, antenna elements 214, and system manager 222. Radaremitting element 212 provides a wide radar field.

At 504, a reflection signal is received. As shown in FIG. 2, antennaelement 214 receives a reflection signal based on some interaction withthe provided radar field. This reflection signal is passed to systemmanager 222 for analysis.

At 506, signal elements from within the reflection signal aredetermined. This can be performed in the numerous different mannersdescribed above and below. Both type-independent and type-specificgesture managers can be used.

At 508, signal elements of the received reflection signal are comparedwith known signal elements for known gestures. These known signalelements are those provided by the process performed at method 300 notedabove. Consider again, the examples shown in FIG. 4, in which a wavegesture 402 is illustrated. Assume, for this example, that a user isattempting to interact with a computing watch having a wide-fieldradar-based gesture recognition system through a wave gesture. The userperforms the gesture within the radar field, which is within some numberof centimeters or even a meter or two of the radar field provided by theradar system of the computing watch, and which causes a reflectionsignal to be received by the antenna element. This reflection signal isanalyzed by system manager 222, which includes access to the signalelements known to be associated with various gestures. System manager222 compares these and determines that the signal elements of thereflected signal and known signal elements correspond.

At 510, the gesture made is determined based on the correspondencebetween the signal elements and the known signal elements for thecorresponding gesture. Continuing the ongoing example, system manager222 determines that the user has performed a wave gesture.

At 512, the gesture is passed to an application or operating system.This application or operating system can be the active operating systemfor the entity to which it is passed, can be based on manners known inthe art for passive gestures. Concluding the ongoing example, theapplication or operating system receives the wave gesture and respondsaccordingly. As part of, or prior to passing the gesture, gesturemanager 206 may determine for which application or device the gesture isintended. Doing so may be based on identity-specific gestures, a currentdevice to which the user is currently interacting, and/or based oncontrols through which a user may interaction with an application.Controls can be determined through inspection of the interface (e.g.,visual controls), published APIs, and the like.

Optionally, at 514, feedback is provided. This feedback can beresponsive to the gesture recognition failing or succeeding. Assume thatthe user performs the wave gesture in this example and that it was notrecognized as a wave gesture. Assume also that the user indicates thisor otherwise it is determined that the gesture was not properlyrecognize, such as the user continuing to perform the gesture until awave gesture is recognized. System manager 222 passes this failure togesture manager 206 or an entity associated therewith, so that set ofknown signal elements can be altered or improved for recognizing wavegestures. Likewise, successful gesture recognition can be provided toimprove recognition by gesture manager 206.

In some cases method 300 or 500 operates on a device remote from thedevice being controlled. In this case the remote device includesentities of computing device 104 of FIGS. 1 and 2, and passes thegesture through one or more communication manners, such as wirelesslythrough transceivers and/or network interfaces (e.g., network interface208 and transceiver 216). This remote device does not require all theelements of computing device 104—wide-field radar-basedgesture-recognition system 102 may pass reflection signals sufficientfor another device having gesture manager 206 to determine and use thegesture.

Operations of methods 300 and 500 can be repeated, such as bydetermining for multiple other applications and other controls throughwhich the multiple other applications can be controlled. Methods 500 maythen indicate various different controls to control various applicationsassociated with either the application or the actor. In some cases, thetechniques determine or assign unique and/or complex andthree-dimensional controls to the different applications, therebyallowing a user to control numerous applications without having toselect to switch control between them. Thus, an actor may assign aparticular gesture to control one software application on computingdevice 104, another particular gesture to control another softwareapplication, and still another for a thermostat or stereo. This gesturecan be used by multiple different persons, or may be associated withthat particular actor once the identity of the actor is determined.

The preceding discussion describes methods relating to wide-fieldradar-based gesture recognition. Aspects of these methods may beimplemented in hardware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), firmware,software, manual processing, or any combination thereof. Thesetechniques may be embodied on one or more of the entities shown in FIGS.1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 (computing system 800 is described in FIG. 8 below),which may be further divided, combined, and so on. Thus, these figuresillustrate some of the many possible systems or apparatuses capable ofemploying the described techniques. The entities of these figuresgenerally represent software, firmware, hardware, whole devices ornetworks, or a combination thereof.

Example Alternative Hardware Abstraction Modules

As noted in part above, gesture manager 206 can determine the signalelements for each gesture based on the radar system being used. Thus, ifthere are substantial differences between radar fields between thoseperformed for method 300 and later radar fields provided by other radarsystems or similar radar systems that have substantial differences inthe reflected signals, the accuracy of a gesture recognition may suffer.This can be countered, however, by tailoring each set of signal elementsfor each gesture to the radar system being used. In an alternativeembodiment, a hardware abstraction layer is built for each of thedifferent radar systems obviating, to a large extent, the need to havedifferent gesture managers or different signal elements for eachgesture, though these hardware abstraction layers are each trained in amanner similar to methods 300.

By way of illustration, consider FIG. 6, which shows a specific type ofradar-based gesture recognition system 602 and a type-specific gesturemanager 604. These are illustrations of the gesture manager and varioustypes of radar systems noted above, where the radar system is used aspart of the learning process to determine the signal elements specificto that radar type. Alternatively, consider various specific types ofradar-based gesture recognition systems 606-1 and 606-2, through somearbitrary number “N” of these radar systems, shown at 606-N. See alsospecific types of hardware abstraction modules 224 matched to therespective type of radar system, these abstraction modules shown at608-1, 608-2, and 608-N. Type-specific gesture manager 604, as shown inthe dashed-line box, is an illustration of its dependence on the type ofradar system and showing the corresponding components 606-1, 608-1, anda portion of type-independent gesture manager 610. Note however, thattype-independent gesture manager 610 is independent, to a large extent,of the type of radar system as will be described in FIG. 7.

Consider also FIG. 7, in which case the various gestures 402, 404, and406, are performed multiple times and reflection signals are received,408, 410, and 412, respectively by the specific type radar-based gesturerecognition system 606-1 (and each system through system “N”). Notethat, for each of these specific types of systems, the reflection signalis shown differently at Ref. Sig. 1, Ref. Sig. 2, and Ref. Sig. N.Similarly to methods 300, signal elements are determined for theparticular gestures, though in this case the abstraction modules makethis determination and then provide hardware-independent reflectionsignals, as shown in FIG. 7. These hardware-independent reflectionsignals are then received by type-independent gesture manager 610, whichthen determines the gesture performed at methods 500.

In more detail, techniques in which type-specific hardware abstractionmodules 608 can be developed are shown below. These techniques may alsobe used to aid in developing signal elements for type-specific gesturemanager 604 as well. These techniques may therefore be used asembodiments of method 300. In some cases, hardware abstraction modules608 can operate in single tone, stepped FM, linear FM, impulse, andchirped radar systems. As noted in part above, single tone radararchitectures can be of a 60 GHz continuous wave with a single tone orstepped frequency. Stepped FM radar architectures can be of a 96 GHzcontinuous wave stepped frequency. Linear FM can be a 60 GHz frequencymodulated continuous wave. Impulse radar architectures can be of a 60GHz impulse. And chirped radar architectures have a chirped radar field.Note that radar architectures produce equivalent data products, withtime and frequency domains being interchangeable.

Example Computing System

FIG. 8 illustrates various components of example computing system 800that can be implemented as any type of client, server, and/or computingdevice as described with reference to the previous FIGS. 1-7 toimplement wide-field radar-based gesture recognition.

Computing system 800 includes communication devices 802 that enablewired and/or wireless communication of device data 804 (e.g., receiveddata, data that is being received, data scheduled for broadcast, datapackets of the data, etc.). Device data 804 or other device content caninclude configuration settings of the device, media content stored onthe device, and/or information associated with a user of the device(e.g., an identity of an actor performing a gesture). Media contentstored on computing system 800 can include any type of audio, video,and/or image data. Computing system 800 includes one or more data inputs806 via which any type of data, media content, and/or inputs can bereceived, such as human utterances, interactions with a radar field,user-selectable inputs (explicit or implicit), messages, music,television media content, recorded video content, and any other type ofaudio, video, and/or image data received from any content and/or datasource.

Computing system 800 also includes communication interfaces 808, whichcan be implemented as any one or more of a serial and/or parallelinterface, a wireless interface, any type of network interface, a modem,and as any other type of communication interface. Communicationinterfaces 808 provide a connection and/or communication links betweencomputing system 800 and a communication network by which otherelectronic, computing, and communication devices communicate data withcomputing system 800.

Computing system 800 includes one or more processors 810 (e.g., any ofmicroprocessors, controllers, and the like), which process variouscomputer-executable instructions to control the operation of computingsystem 800 and to enable techniques for, or in which can be embodied,wide-field radar-based gesture recognition. Alternatively or inaddition, computing system 800 can be implemented with any one orcombination of hardware, firmware, or fixed logic circuitry that isimplemented in connection with processing and control circuits which aregenerally identified at 812. Although not shown, computing system 800can include a system bus or data transfer system that couples thevarious components within the device. A system bus can include any oneor combination of different bus structures, such as a memory bus ormemory controller, a peripheral bus, a universal serial bus, and/or aprocessor or local bus that utilizes any of a variety of busarchitectures.

Computing system 800 also includes computer-readable media 814, such asone or more memory devices that enable persistent and/or non-transitorydata storage (i.e., in contrast to mere signal transmission), examplesof which include random access memory (RAM), non-volatile memory (e.g.,any one or more of a read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, EPROM,EEPROM, etc.), and a disk storage device. A disk storage device may beimplemented as any type of magnetic or optical storage device, such as ahard disk drive, a recordable and/or rewriteable compact disc (CD), anytype of a digital versatile disc (DVD), and the like. Computing system800 can also include a mass storage media device (storage media) 816.

Computer-readable media 814 provides data storage mechanisms to storedevice data 804, as well as various device applications 818 and anyother types of information and/or data related to operational aspects ofcomputing system 800. For example, an operating system 820 can bemaintained as a computer application with computer-readable media 814and executed on processors 810. Device applications 818 may include adevice manager, such as any form of a control application, softwareapplication, signal-processing and control module, code that is nativeto a particular device, a hardware abstraction layer for a particulardevice, and so on. Device applications 818 also include systemcomponents, engines, or managers to implement wide-field radar-basedgesture recognition, such as gesture manager 206, system manager 222,and in cases where gesture manager 206 is type-independent, hardwareabstraction module 224.

CONCLUSION

Although techniques using, and apparatuses including, wide-fieldradar-based gesture recognition have been described in language specificto features and/or methods, it is to be understood that the subject ofthe appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific featuresor methods described. Rather, the specific features and methods aredisclosed as example implementations of wide-field radar-based gesturerecognition.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:providing, by an emitter of a radar system, a radar field, the radarfield comprising a contiguous radar field; receiving, at a receiver ofthe radar system, a first set of reflection signals caused by a firstinteraction within the contiguous radar field, the first interactioncomprising performing a gesture, the first set of reflection signalscorresponding to a first time period during which the gesture isperformed within the contiguous radar field; receiving, at the receiverof the radar system, a second set of reflection signals caused by asecond interaction within the contiguous radar field or anothercontiguous radar field, the second interaction comprising performing thegesture, the second set of reflection signals corresponding to a secondtime period during which the gesture is performed within the contiguousradar field or the other contiguous radar field; analyzing the first andsecond sets of reflection signals to determine a signal element commonto the first and second sets of reflection signals, the analyzingcomprising breaking the first and second sets of reflection signals intomany signal elements and determining which of the many signal elementscorresponds to both the first interaction performing the gesture and thesecond interaction performing the gesture, the determined signal elementcorresponding to the gesture; and associating the determined signalelement with the gesture effective to enable a later received reflectionsignal including the determined signal element caused by anotherinteraction within the contiguous radar field or the other contiguousradar field to be associated with the gesture.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein analyzingthe first and second sets of reflection signals is not based on trackingpoints or elements of the first or second interactions within thecontiguous radar field.
 3. The computer-implemented method as describedin claim 1, wherein the radar system is not a phased antenna array. 4.The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, furthercomprising receiving multiple other sets of reflection signals caused bymultiple other interactions of the first, second, or other interactionsperforming the gesture within the contiguous radar field or the othercontiguous radar field and wherein analyzing the first and second setsof reflection signals analyzes the first set of reflection signals, thesecond set of reflection signals, and the multiple other sets ofreflection signals.
 5. The computer-implemented method as described inclaim 4, wherein the contiguous radar field or the other contiguousradar field in which the first, second, and other sets of reflectionsignals is received is a same contiguous radar field provided by a sameemitter of the same radar system.
 6. The computer-implemented method asdescribed in claim 1, further comprising refining the signal elementassociated with the gesture based on other signal elements associatedwith other gestures.
 7. The computer-implemented method as described inclaim 1, wherein the contiguous radar field or the other contiguousradar field comprises continuous wave radar or pulsed radar.
 8. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein breakingthe first and second sets of reflection signals into many signalelements comprises digitally breaking up the reflection signal andanalyzing, one at a time, each of the broken-up reflection signals. 9.The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein thefirst time period occurs non-simultaneously with or prior to the secondtime period.
 10. The computer-implemented method as described in claim1, wherein the radar system is comprised within a wearable device. 11.The computer-implemented method as described in claim 10, wherein theradar system is comprised within a computing watch.
 12. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the radarsystem is comprised within a smartphone.
 13. The computer-implementedmethod as described in claim 1, wherein the radar system is comprisedwithin a tablet computer.
 14. The computer-implemented method asdescribed in claim 1, wherein the radar system is comprised within acomputing ring.
 15. The computer-implemented method as described inclaim 1, wherein the radar system is comprised within computingspectacles.
 16. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1,wherein the radar system is comprised within a desktop computer.
 17. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the radarsystem is comprised within a microwave or a home appliance.
 18. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the radarsystem is comprised within a home automation system, a security system,or a control system.
 19. The computer-implemented method as described inclaim 1, wherein the radar system is comprised within an entertainmentsystem or an audio system.
 20. The computer-implemented method asdescribed in claim 1, wherein the radar system is disposed within thewalls of a building.
 21. The computer-implemented method as described inclaim 1, wherein the radar system is disposed within an automobile. 22.A computer-implemented method comprising: providing a contiguous radarfield; receiving a reflection signal for a gesture made within thecontiguous radar field, the reflection signal including: a first set ofreflection signals caused by a first interaction within the contiguousradar field, the first set of reflection signals corresponding to afirst time period during which the gesture is made within the contiguousradar field; and a second set of reflection signals caused by a secondinteraction within the contiguous radar field or another contiguousradar field, the second set of reflection signals corresponding to asecond time period during which the gesture is made within thecontiguous radar field or the other contiguous radar field; determiningsignal elements of the reflection signal by breaking the reflectionsignal, including the first and second sets of reflection signals, intomany signal elements and determining which of the many signal elementscorresponds to both the first interaction making the gesture and thesecond interaction making the gesture to determine a signal elementcommon to the first and second sets of reflection signals andcorresponding to the gesture; associating the determined signal elementswith the gesture effective to enable a later received reflection signalincluding the determined signal elements caused by another interactionwithin the contiguous radar field or the other contiguous radar field tobe associated with the gesture; comparing the determined signal elementsof the reflection signal to know n signal elements associated with knowngestures; determining, based on the determined signal elements of thereflection signal corresponding to the known signal elements, that thegesture made in the contiguous radar field is one of the known gestures;and passing the one of the know n gestures to an application oroperating system.
 23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:receiving a second reflection signal for a second gesture; determiningsecond signal elements of the second reflection signal; comparing thesecond signal elements of the second reflection signal to the knownsignal elements associated with the known gestures; determining, basedon the second signal elements not corresponding to the known signalelements, that the second gesture was not properly recognized; andaltering the known signal elements for the gesture based on thedetermined second signal elements.
 24. The method of claim 22, furthercomprising: receiving, from a user, multiple reflection signals frommultiple iterations of a unique gesture made within the contiguous radarfield, the unique gesture not being one of the known gestures;determining signal elements of the multiple reflection signals, thesignal elements sufficient to determine that a later-received reflectionsignal for a later-received gesture of the user matches the uniquegesture; and associating the determined signal elements to the uniquegesture.
 25. The method of claim 24, further comprising associating theunique gesture to a control of an application, the associatingresponsive to an assignment of the control and the application selectedby the user.
 26. The method of claim 22, wherein breaking the reflectionsignal into the many signal elements comprises digitally breaking up thereflection signal and analyzing, one at a time, each of the broken-upreflection signals.
 27. The method of claim 22, wherein the contiguousradar field includes multiple contiguous radar fields from differentdirections or multiple contiguous radar fields having differentfrequencies or phases.
 28. The method of claim 22, wherein thecontiguous radar field is a continuous-wave radar field and wherein thecontinuous-wave radar field is a single tone, linear frequency modulated(FM), or stepped FM field.
 29. The method of claim 22, wherein thecontiguous radar field is a pulsed-wave radar field, an impulse radarfield, or a chirped radar field.
 30. The method of claim 22, wherein thecontiguous radar field is provided by a wearable device.
 31. The methodof claim 30, wherein the contiguous radar field is provided by acomputing watch.
 32. The method of claim 22, wherein the contiguousradar field is provided by a smartphone.
 33. The method of claim 22,wherein the contiguous radar field is provided by a tablet computer. 34.The method of claim 22, wherein the contiguous radar field is providedby a computing ring.
 35. The method of claim 22, wherein the contiguousradar field is provided by computing spectacles.
 36. The method of claim22, wherein the contiguous radar field is provided by a desktopcomputer.
 37. The method of claim 22, wherein the contiguous radar fieldis provided by a microwave or a home appliance.
 38. The method of claim22, wherein the contiguous radar field is provided by a home automationsystem, a security system, or a control system.
 39. The method of claim22, wherein the contiguous radar field is provided by an entertainmentsystem or an audio system.
 40. The method of claim 22, wherein thecontiguous radar field is disposed within the walls of a building. 41.The method of claim 22, wherein contiguous radar field is disposedwithin an automobile.
 42. An apparatus comprising: one or more computerprocessors; a radar-based gesture-recognition system comprising: aradar-emitting element configured to provide a contiguous radar field;and an antenna element configured to: receive reflection signals fromtissue that is within the contiguous radar field; and pass the receivedreflection signals; and one or more computer-readable storage mediahaving instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by theone or more computer processors, perform operations comprising: causingthe radar-based gesture-recognition system to provide the contiguousradar field with the radar-emitting element; causing the radar-basedgesture-recognition system to receive reflection signals with theantenna element for a gesture made in the contiguous radar field thereflection signals including: a first set of reflection signals causedby a first interaction within the contiguous radar field, the first setof reflection signals corresponding to a first time period during whichthe gesture is made within the contiguous radar field; and a second setof reflection signals caused by a second interaction within thecontiguous radar field or another contiguous radar field, the second setof reflection signals corresponding to a second time period during whichthe gesture is made within the contiguous radar field or the othercontiguous radar field; determining signal elements corresponding to thegesture made in the contiguous radar field by: breaking the reflectionsignals, including the first and second sets of reflection signals, intomany signal elements; comparing the many signal elements of the receivedreflection signals to known signal elements previously associated withknow n gestures that included the determined signal elements, the knowngestures having been caused by another interaction within the contiguousradar field or other contiguous radar field; determining, based on thedetermined signal elements corresponding to the known signal elements,that the interaction made in the contiguous radar field corresponds toone of the known gestures; and passing the one of the know n gestures toan application or operating system.
 43. The apparatus of claim 42,wherein the one or more computer-readable storage media is furtherconfigured to perform operations comprising: receiving multiplereflection signals from multiple iterations of a complex gesture madewithin the contiguous radar field, the complex gesture not being one ofthe known gestures; determining signal elements of the multiplereflection signals, the signal elements sufficient to determine that alater-received reflection signal for a later-received gesture matchesthe complex gesture; and associating the determined signal elements tothe complex gesture.
 44. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the receivedreflection signals are not based on tracking points or elements of theinteraction within the contiguous radar field.
 45. The apparatus ofclaim 42, wherein breaking the received reflection signals into signalelements comprises digitally breaking up the received reflection signalsand analyzing, one at a time, each of the broken-up reflection signals.46. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the contiguous radar fieldincludes multiple contiguous radar fields from different directions ormultiple contiguous radar fields having different frequencies or phases.47. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the contiguous radar field is acontinuous-wave radar field and wherein the continuous-wave radar fieldis a single tone, linear frequency modulated (FM), or stepped FM field.48. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the contiguous radar field is apulsed-wave radar field, an impulse radar field, or a chirped radarfield.
 49. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the apparatus comprises awearable device in which the radar-based gesture-recognition system isdisposed.
 50. The apparatus of claim 49, wherein the apparatus comprisesa computing watch in which the radar-based gesture-recognition system isdisposed.
 51. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the apparatus comprisesa smartphone in which the radar-based gesture-recognition system isdisposed.
 52. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the apparatus comprisesa tablet computer in which the radar-based gesture-recognition system isdisposed.
 53. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the apparatus comprisesa computing ring in which the radar-based gesture-recognition system isdisposed.
 54. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the apparatus comprisescomputing spectacles in which the radar-based gesture-recognition systemis disposed.
 55. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the apparatuscomprises a desktop computer in which the radar-basedgesture-recognition system is disposed.
 56. The apparatus of claim 42,wherein the apparatus comprises a microwave or a home appliance in whichthe radar-based gesture-recognition system is disposed.
 57. Theapparatus of claim 42, wherein the apparatus comprises a home automationsystem, a security system, or a control system in which the radar-basedgesture-recognition system is disposed.
 58. The apparatus of claim 42,wherein the apparatus comprises an entertainment system or an audiosystem in which the radar-based gesture-recognition system is disposed.59. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the apparatus is disposed withinwalls of a building.
 60. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein theapparatus is disposed within an automobile.